GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A gunman has turned himself in for the shooting of an 18-year-old at a basketball court near Snellville Wednesday night.
Robert Jennings, 31, now faces charges of aggravated assault and felony murder after police say he shot and killed 18-year-old Ezekial Jonah Smith.
Both Jennings and Smith were residents at the mobile home park, police said.
Around 8:30 p.m. May 23, Gwinnett Police responded to the Smokecreek mobile home park off Smoke Creek Parkway for a person shot called. By the time officers arrived, though, the victim was already on his way to the hospital, where he later died.
According to children who were present at the time of the incident, Smith had been defending his brother when Jennings got upset with the 18-year-old's brother Hezekiah for allegedly stealing his football. That's when Jennings took his gun out and shot Smith, according to witnesses. They said he also pistol-whipped Hezekiah.
11Alive's La'Tasha Givens spoke to Smith's mother Elizabeth who described the 18-year-old, the fourth of eight brothers and a sister, as very protective of his siblings.
"He was a sweet boy, a protector," his mother said.
Elizabeth said after they moved him from the public school system into an alternative learning center, he was thriving and on track to graduate this coming fall.
"He pulled through. He put 100 percent to it, was an A/B student, was very intelligent," she described. "He blossomed."
Elizabeth said Ezekial and his brother helped out at a day care near where they lived, and everyone spoke glowingly of both.
"And they gave their all," his mother said. "(The teacher) was like, 'My goodness! These boys – you did well with them!'"
PHOTOS | Ezekial Smith
PHOTOS | Ezekial Smith
Elizabeth told 11Alive the shooting has left her devastated and confused.
"Its really sad that it was a neighbor who did this who is also a father who did this, and I can't explain why, over a football. Really," she asked. "I don't know what was going through his mind."
While Elizabeth said Jennings rightfully sits behind bars charged with her son's murder, Elizabeth said she is making the painful effort to not speak poorly of the him. Instead, she is praying for Jennings and his family.
"He's a good God, he's never, ever failed me, so I can't fail Him and speak wrong," she explained.
She said she would also be praying for his own son, young relatives and the other children who witnessed the heinous act.
"I pray that the two nephews that accompanied him, and his son that was there when he did his act, that God bring peace to his mind, because this is something that will disturb him as he grows up to know that this is what my dad did, and I wouldn't want that little boy to know his father to be that," she said.
As for her son, Elizabeth said she would only focus on the good memories in order to keep his memory alive.
"He did not die in vain. His life was not taken in vain," Elizabeth concluded.